Making a Cinderella Ball Gown

Somewhere along the way, I decided this was going to be the year I finally made the dress from the Cinderella 2015 movie. And what a dress it is.

The petticoat was half the battle, and you can find details about that here. This post will primarily be about how I made the skirt, constructed the bodice, and repurposed a pair of thrifted shoes for glass slippers (aka shoes with lots and lots of glitter).

The Skirt

The upper skirt is only three layers: a metallic blue, blue organza, and periwinkle organza. The metallic blue ended up giving the skirt a great color depth (I have no idea if that’s the right term, but that’s what we’re going with) that I was nervous about at first, but ended up very happy with. I know the actual movie skirt has an iridescent opal white shade, but I wanted this one to have more blue undertones, especially since the final two layers were more purple than blue.

Each layer is a rectangle seamed together along the selvage edges and gathered down to fit the waistband, with the back extending out for the train. Once all the panels were in, I cut the uneven panels into an arc to shape the train, then hemmed all the layers with a rolled hem on the serger.

I wanted to start with the easier part of the outer layers but also so I’d be able to have the lower part of the bodice extend to the right points. I also wanted them to flare out across the skirt after the waist to keep the fullness of the skirt intact.

I attached the first round of stones to the skirt before I started the bodice as well. All together there are about 1,200 swarovski crystals on the skirt that I hand-glued on individually.

The Bodice

After finishing the skirt, I had less than a week to finish up the rest of the dress and make the bodice. There were a few rounds of mock ups to start with, built off of this Truly Victorian bodice pattern.

Besides general fit changes, I lowered the back, shortened the waist, and raised the lower end while also expanding it to accommodate the fullness of the skirt. Needless to say, I also didn’t include the bertha front. The whole pattern is made to fit over a corset, so I used one I made a few years ago that I’ve since broken in for several costumes.

After I had the mock ups adjusted, I cut everything out in both the silk and blue organza overlay, then flatlined that to coutil. The base silk is on the purple side of periwinkle, but I was really happy that the organza gave it the perfect sheen and color to match.

After flatlining everything then seaming the pieces together, I had this shell.

At this point, I inserted bone casings into the seams, then boning into those. The only exception is the front point of the bodice, which has a V of boning that meets at the point at center front. The bone casing for the point bones I’d had to sew onto the pattern pieces before I flatlined them since they couldn’t be hidden in the seams.

To finish the bodice shell off, I made piping to match, then finished off the bottom of the bodice that way.

After attaching the piping at the seam line, I folded it under and hand-tacked it to the inside. To finish off the top and arms, I sewed bias tape onto the right sides, then folded that under and hand-tacked it down. I could’ve used a lining, but decided to use this method since I could do it faster and it looks just as good finished.

The last piece of finishing on the base of the bodice was just to attach closures and a placket. For the sake of time, I used hook and eye tape, and the placket extends down only as far as the skirt.

Below is one of my first fittings in the actual bodice before I’d added the neckline puff and tacked the edges of the skirt up to meet the end of the bodice.

While I’m mostly happy with the bodice, especially in the time I did it in, the organza was not very well behaved and did weird things at the waistline where the bodice curved out to cover the skirt. It also wrinkled a lot at the seams and probably would’ve been better suited to a bodice with fewer seams, especially at the front.

The Bodice Ruffle and Butterflies

One of the last finishes for the bodice was to make the upper ruffle portion that I spared no drama for.

Both sides are simple rectangles of three layers: periwinkle organza, blue organza, then blue net. To get the volume I wanted, both sides were about twice as long and twice as wide as they needed to be, then gathered down to fit at the edges.

After hand sewing the top edge down along the finished edge of the neckline, and the other edge about two inches below that, I tacked the puff down in about five places on each side. Below you can see the difference between the tacked and untacked puff and just how much volume is scrunched in there.

The end result was a dramatic finish that held its shape extremely well.

Unfortunately, after wearing it for the first time, I realized the puffs had to come down even more because they swallowed me and looked out of proportion. But I did fix this before the photoshoot and was more than happy with it!

The last touch was the butterflies. I looked at a few different options to buy them, but then decided to make my own to get exactly what I was looking for.

First, I found an easy butterfly pattern and printed it out at the scale I wanted. I tried a few different materials before finally settling on making the shape out of a thick plastic binder divider I could bend at the middle and it would still hold its shape.

To transfer the pattern to the plastic without keeping permanent lines, I used a washable marker I could just wipe off when I was done.

After tracing and cutting out three different types of butterflies, I had this great collection of 21 butterflies.

After that it was time to paint. Since I didn’t have time to go out and get any new paint, I had to settle for what I had lying around, which ended up being a mix of acrylic paint and nail polish. I painted them all with a few coats, then used a coat of clear paint over that to have a base for the final layer of glitter.

They were all finished with a crystal “head” then sewn onto the puff.

The Shoes

I decided to do a quick fix on some shoes with a low, easy-to wear heel. I ended up finding these at goodwill and they also happened to be practically unworn which was a bonus. I figured they would take paint well too, since they’re pink suede.

First I cut off the straps and trimmed down the edges into the shape I wanted.

Then I painted them over with a base coat of silver and gave them a few coats of clear-drying glue to attach the glitter.

And that’s it! As cumbersome as it is to wear, this dress feels beautiful on and I love the way it turned out. As of now, I’m waiting to get the photos back from our princess photoshoot which I’m so excited to share!

Thanks for reading and keep an eye out to see the photos!